• Published 7th Jan 2014
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The Betrayed - Thadius0



Chrysalis has dealt with beligerent changelings the same way time and again: exile. Funny how all her little problems come back to bite her now.

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Chapter the First - First person flashback

Alright, let's start this then. My name is Abel, an-

Yes, I know the name doesn't fit. At least, it doesn't until you hear the story, both behind me and the name I chose.

Yes, chose. I was born with another, but that one fits even less now, and the name I go by in disguise only speaks about a part of my mind. Abel at least encompasses how I felt twenty-three years ago, and how I felt every time I encountered another one of my kind until about eight years ago.

You aren't going to let it go, are you? You really want to know why I go by Abel. Fine.
There's a legend in the land where I'm from, but I can't really recall all of it except a few key bits, and even then I'll have to simplify it for you. At the dawn of creation, two males, brothers, were enjoying the day. Then from on high, a voice spoke to them from the sky. It told them that it was their Creator, and to honor it, for it had given life to them.
Abel, the younger, lived a good life, and gave honor to their Creator in every waking moment.
Cain, the older, thought their Creator wanted blood sacrifice.

Yeah, you see how that story ends, don't you? And now you know why I go by Abel. Every time I met another of my kind, I felt betrayed.

I tried to steer the topic away from that! It's my version of warning you!

Fair enough. If I think something in my tale will turn your stomach, I'll...hmm. I'll tap on the table three times. Deal?

Good. Now where were we?

Oh, so we hadn't. Well then.
My name is Abel, and this is my tale.
-----
Right, so my life on Equus began quite simply.
I hatched out of a pod in a Hive, like quite a few changelings.

Okay, fine. ONLY the Queen is allowed to 'lay' eggs. Other changelings either tend NOT to breed, or do so the pony way. The Queen can also choose to give birth the pony way, but why the hell would she, it'd just slow her down.

Yes, technically I was something the Queen was invested in. Albeit peripherally.
What was NOT standard procedure was immediately being assaulted by screaming. And then the Hive Mind kicked in.
An Albino!
I heard-didn't hear that, with my mind. At the time, I was young and afraid. I knew nothing about what was going on, so I unknowingly made a demand of the Hive Mind.
I wanted to know everything about what was going on, but it only heard me up to 'everything'.
Let's just say? I still experience pain when trying to pull things out of my archived copy of the Hive Mind.
Eons of history and knowledge just poured into my brain, and me without a way to carry it all! I quickly pictured a safe in my head to hold all the knowledge, and for the first time, I used magic.

Oh, okay, let's try it this way. You know how Pinkie Pie can summon her party cannon out of nowhere, and it disappears when she's done with it?

Yeah, I call that phenomenon 'cannonspace'. Only she has access to it, but she can do it all the time. And not just with cannons. Sometimes she's able to do it with herself as well.

Yeah, it hurts me too. Needless to say I try to spend as little time around that mare as possible, unless I need her for something. What with the Archive, I have enough headaches on-call as-is.
But back to the Archive! I like to liken my Archive to Pinkie's Cannonspace. It's there when I need it, and not when I don't. The only issue is, it nearly gives me a migraine every time I call on it.
At the time, though, I was still connected to the Hive Mind, so my Archive-in-the-making was giving me instinctive responses to the situation I found myself in.
It was advising me to run and get out of the Hive before I was killed.
And every changeling in the Hive was so consumed with shock and hate for my very existence that they neglected to disconnect me. So I had a map of the entire Hive in my head, and the instincts of changelings past started to move my young body. Granted, I didn't have much to work with, but every changeling is born to be able to at least move about.
I would need to do more than that, however.
I managed, somehow, to get to the entrance of the Hive and flee every changeling that was coming for me.
The screaming mob behind me probably helped motivate me. And really, there is no better exercise regimen than running for your life. You actually have an incentive to not stop, unlike when you exercise to keep fit or for fun or for training.
After I got outside the Hive, I could still feel, somehow, that the mob was coming. So I kept running. And kept running.
Eventually, I got so deep into the forest that I couldn't feel the mob anymore.
Or the Hive Mind.
All I had was my Archive.
For the first time since waking, I was alone, and I liked it that way.
I closed my eyes, and slept the night away, hoping that it was all a bad dream.
-----
Of course, when I awoke the next day, I knew it wasn't a dream. The pre-perforated hoof was kind of a dead giveaway.
So I did the most logical thing one could do in my situation:
Looked for a body of water so I could look at my reflection, see what I looked like. Most sentient beings are at least mildly curious, and self-inspection is the fastest way to determine if you're injured as well.
It took me a little while of wandering through the forest before I found a pool of water large enough for my purposes. And that's when I got a good look at myself.
The first thing that came to mind was both that I was incredibly small, and that if I could close my eyes and hide what passes for hair among changelings, I could hide perfectly come wintertime. Even I don't like looking at my natural colors. Pink does not go with white.

Yes, but those are cosmetic changes. It's not a full-body change. Red's better, in my opinion.

Fine, I'll change back for a second, but afterwards I'm changing back to this. It just feels...wrong, to me, to wear my pink colors.

Ow...still smarts.

What? Oh, don't worry, I'll tell you about that part later. Where was I? Oh yeah, self-inspection.
My wings were what caught my eye next. I flexed them instinctively, and saw them flutter a bit. I resolved to access the Archive's memories on flight later, as I had just noticed the jagged horn on top of my head. I just kept finding new things to learn about, and I had all the Archive to play with.
Though I also realized that using it while out in the open would not be the brightest of ideas.
So I looked for a cave or a sufficiently large tree that I could use to seclude myself in so that I could access the Archive without being bothered.
After a few hours of searching, I found a cave in the side of a hill. I quickly scanned inside, found nothing living, and saw no signs of habitation, so I settled down and closed my eyes.
It was time to prod my Archive and see what I had gotten into, merely by being born.
And what I learned from it on that day? Pretty impressive. But I think we're about done for now, right? It's lunchtime for you, and afterwards, Miss Sparkle might want to sit in. So this fits in perfectly, because I want someone as organized and studious as she is to be here for what I'm about to say in the next bit. It's part of history from before ponies started writing things down, and frankly, I wouldn't deny her the chance to learn about it. Not even if you offered me all the magic in Canterlot.

No, not even then. Have you seen an angry Twilight? I have. She spontaneously combusted for a moment, before resigning herself to accepting something she couldn't understand. After she had spent all day trying to. Granted, that was Pinkie being Pinkie. Me actively denying her the chance to record something brand-new to ponykind? I wouldn't last ten seconds.

Wait, really? He still doesn't trust me? Argh...

No, it's complex. I understand his reason for hating changelings in general, what I don't understand is how many times I need to prove to him that I am not the same, that I can be trusted, that I should be trusted.

Which is why we're here in the first place. I'll make you a deal, you at least try to keep Shining in line, and I'll keep my own emotions in line as well as I can because I still respect Miss Sparkle.

Author's Note:

So uh.
Yeah.
On the one hand, kinda ashamed I'm doing this. A part of me is screaming in my own head that I shouldn't.
But on the other hand, how am I to get feedback and improve my own writing skills, if I don't actually get my story out there for others to see?
I have a few good chapters on the back burner as well. And you'll see the Human tag used in them later.
But be honest, whatcha think?

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